Page 78 of The Last One You Loved

“Oh, don’t be. We weren’t going riding today, anyway. Terrance”—Sadie flicked the shoulder of the tall, red-haired guy next to her—“is afraid of horses.”

I barely held back my snort, but Sadie must have caught it anyway because she glared. “Don’t start, Mads. Otherwise, I’ll be forced to tell McKenna about your monk lifestyle and lack of sex.”

I put my hands over Mila’s ears, felt my cheeks heat, and shot Sadie a glare. “Jesus, Sadie. Really?”

McKenna’s lips were twitching.

Mila squirmed under my hold, and I removed my hands from her ears and said, “Go say hi to Nana and Papa real quick before we leave.”

“Okay, Daddy!”

She skipped away toward the farmhouse.

“What have I said about talking like that around Mila, Sades?” I scolded.

Sadie leaned toward McKenna and talked out of one side of her mouth. “It isn’t just Mila. He doesn’t like any of us talking about sex. You should see the group chat with the four of us. It’s like, ‘Don’t talk sex, don’t mention sex, don’t have sex,’ all the time. I think he and Gemma almost wet themselves when I said Terrance and I had hooked up in the theater bathroom.”

Terrance choked, and he and I exchanged a look that I turned into a glare.

“You do remember I can arrest you for public indecency, right?” I said, reaching over and tousling her hair.

She pushed my hand away. “It was absolutely, wonderfully indecent, too.”

Terrance turned bright red and backed away from her toward the house. “I… I think I’m going to head back inside.”

“Ryder and I thought we’d take you for a little car ride tomorrow, show you the sights. That all right with you, Terrance?” I boomed after him.

It was Sadie’s turn to gasp, and she slammed her fist into my shoulder. “Knock it off.”

“You started it by bringing him here in the first place,” I told her.

She followed Terrance, leaving McK and me in silence. We rubbed down the horses, watered them, and tucked them into their stalls before heading toward the house ourselves.

“Sadie is…” McK trailed off.

“A firecracker. Just like someone else I know used to be.” I looked down at her.

“I was never quite that…open,” she said, and it took my smile away because she hadn’t been. She’d teased and tossed out one-liners, but there’d always been a reserve to her that held her back from completely letting go. I wondered if it would still be there once I had her in my bed, naked and panting.

It was absolutely the wrong thought to have as I walked into my mama’s kitchen.

“Daddy! I want to spend the night. Aunt Sadie is making pizzas and said I could design my own in any shape I want. I think I’m going to try and make a rainbow-shaped one with a puffy cloud hanging off the end.”

I sighed. “You’ve already spent the night twice this week, Bug-a-Boo.”

“Let her stay,” Sadie said.

“Where’s Mama and Dad?” I asked, looking around.

“Getting ready to go line dancing with the Abbotts. The rest of us are just going to hang out here. Mila will be fine.”

“You won’t be able to get distracted with…you know.” I shot a glance over to where Terrance was on the couch with her other friends, a card game spread out on the coffee table in front of them.

Sadie rolled her eyes. “As if. Mama put me in Mila’s room, and Terrance is staying over the barn.”

“That doesn’t mean shit. McK and I used to sneak out to the barn all the time.”

McK made a garbled noise in her throat, and Sadie laughed. “I remember teasing you both about k-i-s-s-i-n-g-ing. That’s kind of funny.”